Fbi Liaisons Hope To Build Ties With Muslims

The FBI has promised to assign agents to mosques as liaisons to build better relations between law enforcement and Muslims.

South Florida Muslim leaders said they welcome cooperation with the FBI, hoping the newly forged relationship will prevent Muslims from being harassed and profiled by law enforcement.

"Muslim leaders are being flooded with complaints about being profiled and detained at airports," said Altaf Ali, head of South Florida Council for American-Islamic Relations.

"If trust is to be developed, profiling has to stop," he said.

The FBI's strategy of building alliances with ethic religious communities comes on the heels of the growing number of anti-terrorism Muslim organizations nationwide, said Walid Phares, a professor of international relations and the Middle East at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

"The FBI is trying to make it clear in these meetings that the problem is not the community," Phares said.

"It's radical ideology, and [they've] got to educate the rest of us and explain that ideology," he added.

About 30 Muslims met with Michael S. Clemens, special agent in charge in the FBI's Miami office, and agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force on Wednesday at CAIR headquarters in Pembroke Pines at the behest of CAIR, Muslim and FBI officials said.

The agents asked Muslims to be on the lookout for radicals who advocate violence against the United States.

"We advised the audience that we are not asking them to spy, to be suspicious of each other or to violate their faith," said Stu McArthur, head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. "We are asking them the same thing we ask of all Americans, to take a proactive role in protecting their country."

Ali said: "It is important for us to be vigilant. In the past and even currently, people come and go as they please. You never know who is going to come in your midst."

The 20 mosques in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties serve about 70,000 Muslims, according to Ali.

Gregory Lewis can be reached at glewis@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4203